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Suddenly, Pork Rinds Are Classy Crunch

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RENDERED from smoked, fried hog skin, pork rinds have suffered a dismal image over the years, never quite garnering the following of other, arguably more respectable junk foods, like pretzels or potato chips.

But with President Bush's stated fondness for the rinds, the status of the snack has risen considerably. Since the Presidential campaign, when it became widely known that Mr. Bush liked pork rinds, sales have been booming, and here, in rural northwest Ohio, employees at the Rudolph Foods Company have had to work overtime to keep up with demand.

''At first when this thing hit, during the campaign, I thought it would go away, that it was a fad,'' said John E. Rudolph, the 64-year-old founder and president of the company, the nation's largest pork rind producer. ''But it has gone off the scale.''

In Chicago, Rudolph's major competitor, Evans Food Products, also said there has been an upsurge in sales of their pork rinds sold under the lables, Evan's and Pete's.

Fresh hides from 175,000 hogs arrive here each week from Iowa, Nebraska and other states to be frozen, chopped, then cooked dry, then smoked over hardwood in a process developed by Mr. Rudolph's wife, Mary. A second cooking in its own fat reduces the hides' fat content, rendering flat, greasy, squares that smell and look like bacon. When the pieces are plunged into a vat of 400-degree hog fat, it takes merely a minute for trapped moisture to turn to steam and ''pop'' the flat pellets into crispy, flavorful pork rinds.

The idea that the skin of the hog could be served as a special treat is an old one. Mr. Rudolph believes the snack originated two centuries ago in Mexico, after the introduction of pork by the Spaniards.

The Mexican variety, the chicharron, is still popular. It is typically flavored with lime and chili powder or added to scrambled eggs. With hot sauce, chicarrones are also served as a meal.

Another early version of the pork rind, cracklings, is a crisp byproduct of rendering pork fat for its lard and has long been popular in the southern states as an ingredient in eggs and cornbread.

Still, with all his recent success, Mr. Rudolph is defensive when asked about the nutritional value and healthiness of a pork-rind habit. Responding earlier this year to what he called ''bad nutrition press,'' which called into question the snack's fat and salt content, he asked Nutrition Network, an independent food-research concern in Laguna Beach, Calif., to study the nutritional content.

It found that a half-ounce serving (about a handful) of rinds has 80 calories, 9 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat. That is more protein and less fat than in a half-ounce of shelled peanuts. Rinds are not loaded with cholesterol, coming in at less than 20 milligrams a half-ounce, as against 200 milligrams in an egg.

They are, however, very salty. Each half-ounce serving (the snack size sold by Rudolph's is a half-ounce; it also comes in a 2 1/2-ounce size) has 270 milligrams of sodium, almost twice that of most potato chips.

''If you had a real heart problem you wouldn't want to eat a batch of them,'' Mr. Rudolph said. ''But we could call them low-cholesterol if we wanted to.''

Still, while Charlene Rainey, president of Nutrition Network, maintains that pork rinds can fit into a balanced diet, she advises moderation. ''We wouldn't suggest to anyone to eat large quantities of meat,'' she said. ''We would never suggest to somebody to eat two ounces of pork rinds, that's not sensible.''

When Mr. Rudolph first began making pork rinds in 1955, it was merely in addition to his main venture, making pepitas, Mexican-style fried pumpkin seeds. In the 30 years since, the sales of pork rinds have grown to account for 95 percent of the company's earnings. This year, he said, the company sales are expected to top $25 million, rising about 20 percent over 1988.

Having found receptive customers in much of the South, the Middle West, and Mexico, Central and South America and Australia, Mr. Rudolph has set his sites on expanding into Europe and Asia. This year, he began shipping to Scandanavia, and a joint venture is in the works in Western Europe. Besides selling pork rinds under the Rudolph's label, the company also markets them under the Pepi's and Grandpa John's labels, and supplies rinds for other companies, including Frito-Lay.

Aside from the plain, salted variety, Rudolph's also prepares hot and spicy pork rinds, rinds with jalepeno and a touch of lemon-lime, a barbecue-flavored rind and rinds packaged with a bag of hot sauce for dunking - a popular method of eating the snack. And as of February, the company began selling a new brand, the President's Favorite, bedecked in a red, white and blue label.